


Hush

by mybrainproblems



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Coran has seen some shit, Hurt/Comfort, I feel like they're sort of kindred spirits, M/M, Pre-Slash, So has Shiro, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-15
Updated: 2017-03-15
Packaged: 2018-10-05 08:22:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,287
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10302188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mybrainproblems/pseuds/mybrainproblems
Summary: It was a rare night that Coran didn’t run into someone. He remembered paladins close knit, open and jovial yet ready for battle. Not the lonely souls that inhabited the castle today. It was such a world apart and he could feel his heart ache for a time before - before Zarkon, before the betrayal - and yet here they were, alive and mostly whole and moving forward with a purpose.Coran wanders the halls, Shiro finds him.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Prompted with "Hush: Write a drabble about one character comforting the other" by entirelytoocool on Tumblr. This is the way-longer-than-intended-and-not-really-prompt-related result. Take that, writer’s block. Please tell me you also love this pairing because I love this pairing send help :')

 

Coran had gotten used to finding his comrades wandering around the castle after hours. It was a regular occurrence as the new paladins adapted to their new lives, as Allura and he adapted to  _their_  new lives.

Pidge was usually in the engineering bay, sleepless and chasing a hypothesis, reminding Coran painfully of the green paladin he used to know. 

Hunk could be found in the kitchen experimenting with unfamiliar ingredients, Coran volunteering a helping hand here and there. 

Keith tended to favor the training room, everything about his stance indicating he wanted to be left alone. Much as it pained him, Coran did.

Lance would always be in the main control room staring at the star map, always offered a silent presence and a cup of tea.

Allura had no particular haunt, feet taking her to wherever memories carried her, Coran breaking the solitude to offer a reassuring embrace.

It was a rare night that Coran didn’t run into someone. He remembered paladins close knit, open and jovial yet ready for battle. Not the lonely souls that inhabited the castle today. It was such a world apart and he could feel his heart ache for a time before - before Zarkon, before the betrayal - and yet here they were, alive and mostly whole and moving forward with a purpose.

 

He made his rounds tonight; a circuit through the halls passing by the engineering bay, the kitchen, the training room, the control room, even the room where Alfor’s memories had once resided. Finally, he reached the end of his nightly walk, the dimly-lit hangar bay where the lions were kept. He let his gaze linger on each of the lions in turn, calling up memories of their old paladins and feeling a lingering pain as he stared down the black lion. Even now, even with a new paladin, he couldn’t shake the memory of Zarkon. Couldn’t shake the memory of the last order he had received from his king.

This was always where he ended his nightly journey, grounding himself in the reality that there were new paladins, that they had a new black paladin who was as much a leader as Zarkon and yet so  _different_. He could feel the bond between Shiro and the Black Lion strengthening and changing; what had been tentative was solidifying. It had fascinated him in the beginning, that the bond between Shiro and his lion had been so tenuous and yet trusting, the lion knowing who Shiro could be -  _would_  be.

Taking a seat on an empty crate, Coran closed his eyes and let his head fall forward, posture going slack as he let the exhaustion settle in. It was at night that it all came back to him. Allura knew loss and sorrow, knew it on a visceral level through the quintessence, and while he didn’t have that same ability he imagined that he could feel the old paladins’ quintessence drifting through the castle and receding slowly as the new paladins took to their roles. And yet there was nothing about their faces that faded away.  _All_  of those  _faces_.

He wondered if Allura could feel in the quintessence what he saw when he closed his eyes. He hoped not.

Lost in thought as he was, Coran didn’t realize that somebody else had entered the hangar until he felt the bulk of another body sit down beside him on the crate. It was rare that he saw Shiro at night. He knew that the other man slept about as well as he did, but rather than wander unfamiliar-familiar hallways he kept to his room. When they did run into each other it was always here.

(It would always come back to the black lion now)

The kinship of loss and horror stretched between them and drew them together; a strange and soothing balm, a solidarity as they used the night to break and re-form into the rocks that they were supposed to be. Ever the adviser, ever the leader, always the protectors. From the look on Shiro’s face at night, Coran didn’t have to ask if it was just as exhausting for Shiro as it was for him.

Shifting to the side to allow Shiro more room to sit, Coran couldn't help but watch the man beside him. There was what the other paladins had referred to as “scruff” on his face, something that the other earthlings seemed rather keen on keeping at bay although his own moustache seemed to get a pass.

They sat in silence, alone together as Coran studied Shiro out of the corner of his eye, mapping out the stress lines and the set of his jaw, well aware that the same was being done to him. It was an odd camaraderie; damaged toy soldiers wound up and set on a course they hadn’t anticipated, trying to protect everyone in spite of everything. Coran closed his eyes again, forcing his face to soften and relax as he breathed out, feeling Shiro copy his own measured breaths.

“So. Couldn’t sleep?” Coran opened his eyes again and turned slightly to look at Shiro’s face in the dim lighting.

“Guess not. You too?” Shiro’s tone was affectless as they went through the usual script – of course Shiro couldn’t sleep, of course Coran couldn’t sleep.

“I’ve slept ten thousand years. I dare say I’m all set for a while.” _Ten thousand years._ He might have woken up to be a great-grand uncle if Altea hadn’t –

“Is that long for an Altean?” Coran felt things shifting, normally this is where they no longer shared a forced smile and simply fell quiet. This was different.

“My great-great grandfather lived to the ripe old age of five thousand eight hundred and two.” Something clawed at his throat and he swallowed, his voice quiet and subdued. “I suppose I’ve got him beat.” They fell silent again and stared at the dull glint on the black lion’s claws.

“We’re getting closer.” Shiro cleared his throat quietly and clarified. “Black and me. I can feel Zarkon’s control getting weaker.”

“I know.” Coran felt a genuine-though-weak smile pulling at his lips. “I can feel it too and… I’m glad.”

“Coran?”

“Hm?”

“Why would the Black Lion choose me if she still had such a strong connection to Zarkon?”

“Zarkon was her paladin for over a hundred years.” He frowned and let his eyes drift closed again, frowning. “He’s familiar to her and where Zarkon may try to _control_ her, she chose _you_. You and your lion grow together, they sense not just who you _are_ but who you _will be_. But.” He let out a long sigh. “Nobody’s omnipotent. Not even the lions. We never saw what was coming until it was too late.”

A restless silence threatened to fall over them and Coran cleared his throat, continuing to speak.

“For her to choose you over her original _living_ paladin? That’s a very special bond.” Coran felt the line of Shiro’s body shift against his as he let out a long breath. “And for what it’s worth, I think you’re a great black paladin.”

“Thanks, Coran.” Looking over, Coran could see Shiro’s cheeks growing steadily more red. “You’re uh… you’re pretty great yourself.”

“Thank you, Shiro.”

This time the silence that fell over them was calm, the both of them leaning into each other and breathing together. The flush was slowly fading from Shiro’s face and Coran could feel his mouth forming a faint smile. He allowed himself another moment of quiet comfort before he nudged against Shiro’s shoulder.

“We should get to bed.”

“Yeah. Okay.”

They rose together, shoulder-to-shoulder as they made their way back to their rooms, anchoring each other and moving together as one.


End file.
